They grow so fast.

[EL-Ziggy]

Chomper "evacuated" the remains of his last meal and weighed in at a fit and ready 675g empty. He came to me at 85g on Sep. 2, 2015. I love this guy.

[wibihihi]

85 gr to 675 gr ?

wow, thats fast

[EL-Ziggy]

85 gr to 675 gr ?

wow, thats fast

I think he's catching up a bit. He was hatched 6/24/14 and was a little undersized at 85g when I got him as a yearling. He usually eats about 10-15% of his body weight every 7days.

[Reinz]

He looks fantastic Ziggy!! Great job!

[Terminal]

He does look great and shows me what I have to look forward to. I will offer shag his first meal here on Sunday and I can't wait. I hope he slams the f/t offering.

[EL-Ziggy]

He does look great and shows me what I have to look forward to. I will offer shag his first meal here on Sunday and I can't wait. I hope he slams the f/t offering.

@ Terminal- Good luck with feeding Shag. If you thaw and heat the prey item to about 100F he should take it. What are you going to feed him for starters? My guy was a bit undersized when I got him so I was feeding him every 5-6 days for the first 3 months. I've moved that to every 6-7 days now. And why did Strawberry get a meal on day one but Shag has to wait?

[Terminal]

@ Terminal- Good luck with feeding Shag. If you thaw and heat the prey item to about 100F he should take it. What are you going to feed him for starters? My guy was a bit undersized when I got him so I was feeding him every 5-6 days for the first 3 months. I've moved that to every 6-7 days now. And why did Strawberry get a meal on day one but Shag has to wait?

I'm going to feed him 15g mice (small adult?). I guess one a week is good for now as he is 94g. What do you think? I only fed strawberry so soon because I was going to feed corny so I couldn't resist even though I thought it might be best to wait a few days but it worked out fine.

I haven't fed shag yet because nick said he fed him a rat pup on the 12th to see if he would take a rat and I can still see a slight bulge. I'm anxious though.

When feeding do you present it to the snake with tongs and wait for him to take it or do you just lay it in the enclosure? The reason I ask is that the one BP i have seems to be intimidated with the offering and the one and only time he has eaten for me out of the four tries I had to leave it laying in the enclosure after he refused the offering. Note that he seems to be a scaredy cat in general anyway. The other BP has taken every offering. Also, when feeding strawberry last night he was really interested in the pinky but wouldn't take it until I let go of it with the forceps and let it lay right in front of him.

Another question, if at feeding time they are hidden away in a hide do you try to get them to come out on their own or do you just uncover them? I think the uncovering really upsets the one BP so the next feed I am just going to leave the mouse lay on the floor and see how that works and forgo the attempt at uncovering and offering.

[Reinz]

I try to keep things as close to nature as possible, considering that it is pretty far from it.


I blow on the rat into the cage for scenting. This gets their attention fast, if they are in the hide, the head pops out and they start looking and exploring.

I present with tongs and wiggle slightly (zombie dance).

After the strike, I will gently tug on the tail or foot a few times every 5 secs or so to emulate live prey for about 25-30 secs. I believe that this helps with conversions too.

I check on them frequently to be sure that there are no problems with debris.


Lizzy, Coastal Carpet

[EL-Ziggy]

T- The adult mice you have will be fine to start him on. I started my coastal on 15-20g rat fuzzys. I would advise getting him on rats sooner than later. I think my snakes all grew faster once they were on rats. Some carpets can be finicky when making the switch but you shouldn't have that problem with your coastal. I feed all of my snakes from tongs and have only had to drop feed my kings a few times during the winter when they were eating sporadically. The carpets all take their foods from tongs. I make sure the feeders are completely thawed and serve them at about 100F. As far as feeding them when they're in their hides I've had no problems lifting hides and feeding my snakes. My coastal was kinda shy for about a month and I always had to lift his hide to feed him. Now he hangs out at the front of his enclosure and is really active when he's ready to eat. Each snake is different and you'll learn to read them as they grow. Carpets can take pretty pretty large meals so you'll feed them a bit differently than your corns. I usually feed my colubrids 10-15% of their body weight per feeding. My carpets eat closer to 15-20% (sometimes a little more) of their body weight per feeding. If Nick fed your guy a rat pup those are typically 20-35g each so a 15g adult mouse will be a smaller meal for him. My coastal ate a 33g jumbo mouse two weeks after being with me and he wasn't even 100g yet. I actually called Nick to see what I should be feeding and he told me to try the jumbo mouse. I didn't think there was any way he could handle that but figured Nick knows a LOT more than I do about these guys so I gave it a shot and he smashed it with ease. Since he had a pretty large meal that time he didn't eat again for 8 days. I got daring last night too. My new 60g Bredl was eating (2) 5g mice fuzzys for his first 2 feedings. I found a small 11g rat fuzzy and offered it. He ate it butt first! I don't push the envelope too far but I've learned not to underestimate these guys .

[Reinz]

I agree, it so amazing how much they can stretch.